Girls In Tech

Guest post written by Victoria A. Seitz, Ph.D

In just the past five years the world of work has changed as well as the clothing we wear for it! Of particular importance is how the tech industry changed the course of business wear as we know it.  What was once considered “Business Casual” is simply business as usual.  Inasmuch as we want to dress down, it’s still important to look good and communicate instantly our expertise and professionalism.  Although suits are definitely not a requirement with tech firms, options might include a jacket and maybe jeans; but there is a right and a wrong way to approach these.

Here are some basic tips for communicating your expertise and position instantly to others:

• Focus on classic styles that have endured such as tailored notch collar shirts and blouses, blazers, A-line skirts, cardigans, trench coats, and shirtwaist dresses.
• Keep the look simple and clean accessorizing for impact with gold, silver, pearls or jewel tones to add sparkle and affluence to your best asset – your face.
• Incorporate fabrics that have body such as cotton/poly blends and heavier knits that are opaque.
• Create a slimmer appearance by wearing darker colors such as navy, burgundy, charcoal and black.
• If in the field, realize that you are communicating the brand image so dress professionally yet comfortably, if the environments vary widely.  If jeans are permitted they should be a dark wash, fit at the natural waist, and be hemmed not dragging.
• Build your wardrobe around the neutrals such as black, taupe, navy, camel, gray and olive and add color in tops, scarves and belts.
• When meeting with a prospective client, consider a jacket with a fitted shirt and trousers.  Also consider tunic tops with pants and a short jacket for interest.  If you want to go sleeveless do so but wear a jacket or cardigan. 
• When dining with clients consider simple pants or skirts with interesting tops and jackets.  Consider a dark colored dress with a shawl around the shoulders.  As well consider a fitted shirt worn out with black pants and a blazer or a mid calf skirt and an over blouse or tunic belted.
• Consider unstructured jackets such as jean jackets and cargo pants with limited detailing but avoid “hoodies,” hats and sweats.  Pants and skirts need to land at the natural waist or a little below but avoid hip-hugger styles.
• To create a slim line and add height, incorporate vertical lines either decoratively in the fabric pattern or structurally as in vertical darts, princess seams, or a placket down the front.  Also consider incorporating long chains or scarves around the neck, as well, as three quarter length sleeves. When wearing a jacket put the collar up.
• Avoid tight clothing rather introduce simple angular lines such as A-line skirts, tailor-notched collar shirts and blouses and tailored jackets to offset the roundness of the body and bring it into balance.  Plain front pants and skirts are recommended over pleated varieties.

Bottom line – realize that your appearance counts at work no matter what you do!

Tags: Adriana Gascoigne, Appearance at work, Dress code, Dress to impress, girls in tech, Victoria A. Seitz, women in business, women in tech
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Women account for 46% of the workforce today, but 59% of those working earn less than $8 per hour. XM Sirius host Willie Jolley, dubbed “America’s Comeback King” by Success Magazine and author of the book Turn Setbacks into Greenbacks, is on a national tour sponsored by E*Trade, helping women get back on their feet, advance their careers and make more money.

Here’s some of his advice he shares with women on going up in down times and getting ahead in life:

• Don’t just look for a job; make a job!  Financial success is linked to thought, so get creative and start thinking like the CEO of Y.O.U., Inc.  Follow the examples of Mary Kay Ash, Lillian Vernon and Debbi Fields.  What need do people have that you can fill?  How can you use your expertise and passion and get paid for it?  What’s something that other businesses in your field aren’t doing that you could do to be successful?
• Get around other successful women.  It really is true that who you hang around is who you become.  Who are you sharing ideas with and networking with?  Get around successful women through in-person networking groups, online and anyway you can.  Solicit their feedback and follow what they’ve done.
• Stretch your financial goals this year way beyond what you think you are capable of earning, even if you don’t know how you’re going to make it happen yet. This puts you in the right frame of mind to start thinking big and make more money.  95% of women keep track of the family checkbook and finances, so it’s up to the ladies to make it happen.
• Stop commiserating!  Women (and men) who sit around and commiserate are the ones who would rather complain about problems than do anything to fix them.  Stop buying into the gloom and doom and make things happen.  Some of the most successful women entrepreneurs started with nothing.

Tags: Adriana Gascoigne, America's Comeback King, E*Trade, girls in tech, Single mothers, Turn Setbacks into Greenbacks, Willie Jolley, women in business
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Silicon Valley-based Venture Capital firm, KPCB and Girls in Tech cordially invite you to attend “Net Effect: The Impact of Women on the Web – Start-up Edition”. KPCB partner Aileen Lee talks with four distinguished female execs who recognize women as not only influencing the overall tech landscape, but increasingly leading it. Join Aileen and her industry-shaping guests on Nov. 9th as they discuss how women are breaking the glass ceiling. The panelists will share their distinct insights on leadership and how businesses across the social web, e-commerce and advertising are achieving success with the female demographic.

Please click on the following infographic to purchase a ticket to the event:

Tags: entrepreneurs, Female, girls in tech, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, KPCB, technology, VC, venture capital, women, women in business
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Girls in Tech is honored to announce its first, confirmed keynote speaker for the upcoming Catalyst Conference on January 26th at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco – Heather Harde, CEO of TechCrunch. Heather Harde is a role model and an inspiration for all women in the tech and business industries. With such an impressive background, including her work experience as well as education, we thought that she would be an amazing fit to present her stories, provide guidance and express words of empowerment to the 350 female leaders who will be attending the conference. As noted in her TechCrunch profile, Heather Harde is the CEO of TechCrunch. She spent the last ten years working within News Corporation. She held a variety of corporate development, strategy and operating roles both in Los Angeles and New York. Most recently, she was part of the founding team at Fox Interactive Media and their SVP Mergers & Acquisitions. Her team spent over $1.3 billion on eight acquisitions and two equity deals during her tenure. Their acquisitions spanned pre-launch start-ups all the way through public-company and pre-IPO buyouts.

Prior to Fox Interactive Media, she held a variety of posts at News America Marketing, TVGuide and ASkyB. Before News Corporation, she also worked for Viacom at Showtime Networks. The common theme in her media life has been working on assignments that focus on the impact of technology on media. This theme continues, of course, with TechCrunch. She started out doing investment banking for a small, private bank Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. She had the opportunity to work both in New York and Tokyo on corporate advisory and private-equity transactions. Heather is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Harvard Business School.

The Catalyst Conference catalyzes the career development of women working in high-tech. By offering high-level keynotes and discussions from successful women at the top of their game alongside workshops led by experts in innovation and collaboration, the Catalyst Conference enables & propels women to take the next step, whether they’re launching a venture, making waves in the corporate world, looking to join an innovative startup, or building their online and digital-media media brand.

Catalyst Conference will bring over 350 passionate, creative women together to fuel new relationships and ideas. Come prepared to share concrete technology and business tools and tactics, meet energetic leaders and entrepreneurs, and develop your own business ventures. This conference is for women at the top of their industries as well as those leading their first ventures, and will guide them all in discussions of strategy and success.

Click on the following link to register for the conference: REGISTRATION

Tags: Catalyst Conference, CEO of TechCrunch, girls in tech, Heather Harde, keynote, women in business, women in tech
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Last month it was that time of year again: Panel Picker Voting for the Annual South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference in Austin, TX. Sound familiar? Check out fellow GIT blogger Kristine Gloria’s post about it here: http://girlsintech.net/2009/08/31/girls-in-tech-at-sxsw-2010/

Each year the public votes online for which proposed panels should make it through to being accepted for the conference. I submitted a panel proposal, titled “Impact of Women in Technology”. Whether the panel makes it through to the final round and becomes an official SXSWi panel or not, I do want to share some of my thoughts on the subject, as well as hear everyone else’s and get some great discussion going on this.

For all you girls out there, was there a female presence that got you excited about tech? Maybe it was a mother, sister, aunt, or friend. Perhaps someone well respected in technology today, like Social Media Strategist Erica O’Grady, or Ad-Village CEO Marissa Louie for example?

If you do have an example like this, what about them or their journey in the tech world inspired or empowered you to pursue your dreams? How important do you think their roles are as pillars of Women in Technology to the future of Women in Tech? For me, two of those people are Tekzilla Co-Host & Gadget Guru Veronica Belmont, & New media producer and star of “The Guild”, Felicia Day. These two women are strong willed, have shown great initiative in their respective spaces, and have become pioneers and tastemakers in the fields of Journalism & New Media.

How have women influenced and changed the face of technology as we know it? This includes anything even remotely tech related, whether it be Journalism, Gaming, PR, Marketing, Social media, & more. Are there any famous cases of companies or brands that have seen great success due to Women in Technology? What issues as a Girl in Tech have you had to face? What issues have other women who’ve made a major impact in technology had to face on their paths to success? What would you tell younger or newer women entering the tech space to help them overcome these hurdles and encourage growth of the amount of women in the tech field?

Why are women in tech important to you, or the Tech Space in general?
I hope this post serves as some great food for thought, & would love to hear everyone’s thoughts and discussion (preferably in the comments below) about this!

Thanks!

Tags: community, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, gamer, girls in tech, GIT, Internet, iphone, journalism, Los Angeles, marketing, networking, PR, public relations, social media, social network, social networking, tech, technology, twitter, venture capital, video games, women, women in business, women in tech
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All Girls in Tech members around the world are invited to this year’s Wharton Business School Women in Business Conference.

This year’s conference features the outstanding duo of Shelly Lazarus, Chairman of Ogilvy + Mather, and Sallie Krawcheck, former CEO of CitiGroup’s Global Wealth Management Practice. Our panels and workshops aim to address the wide range of issues the working woman faces.

This year’s event at the Park Hyatt Bellevue inPhiladelphia on October 9, 2009. It is our goal to connect Wharton women, alumnae and all businesswomen through the annual WWIB Conference. We feel that this year’s conference theme, “Unprecedented Times, Unprecedented Women” is particularly timely. Your presence at the conference strengthens WWIB and the overall female business community and enhances the networking opportunities. If you are interested in attending this year’s conference, registration and conference information can be found on our website www.whartonwomen.org/conf2009.

More about Wharton Women in Business: Wharton Women in Business (WWIB) is a professional organization that strives to enhance the Wharton experience for all MBA women. The organization coordinates efforts in admissions, alumnae outreach, professional development, health and well-being, community service, athletic and inter-club activities. Wharton Women in Business hosts an annual conference that brings together current Wharton women and Wharton alumnae to promote and celebrate women in business. In addition, WWIB fosters camaraderie throughout the graduate Wharton Women community through a variety of social activities.

Tags: 2009, Adriana Gascoigne, girls in tech, Wharton Women in Business, women in business, Women in Business Conference, women in technology
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Warmly written by her Dad, Shervin Pishevar, CEO and founder of SGN in 2006

Where are all the female Venture Capital Partners?

I have been on a major recruiting drive for Freewebs recently searching incredibly hard for a top Vice President of Advertising Sales. I have been having meetings all over from New York, California and here in Washington, D.C. In the last week I have had 3 trips where I left at 5am and came back home at 1am. I have met some amazing candidates so it has been worth the loss of sleep.

Last week in one of these cities I had an early 8am meeting with a top candidate who happened to be female- real stellar human being. We got to talking about her kids and my kids (we each have a young daughter) and we honed in on the lack of opportunities for women in the venture capital space. She was a top MBA, multiple VP level leadership positions and in charge of tens of millions in sales at each position. She has been in the market recently and had a few meetings with Venture firms in her city and was shocked at the dearth of females at the firms.

Less than 10%
I told her that in the 8 years since I started my first company and in my countless meetings with venture firms I had had only 2 meetings with female partners. One was with Ann Winbald at Hummer Winblad in 1999 and the other was with Heidi Roizen at Softbank in 2000 (now Mobius Capital). If I had to pin down the number of venture firms I had met with I would have to guess between 30 and 40 venture firms all over the country geographically dispersed from California, Colorado, the Northeast, Midwest and the South. Statistically that comes out to about 5 to 6.66% of the firms I met with having a female partner that I actually met with.

It turns out that a study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2004 (www.emkf.org) confirmed my more unscientific assumption. The study, “Gatekeepers of Venture Growth: The Role and Participation of Women in the Venture Capital Industry,” found that women hold about 10 percent of management positions at venture capital firms and that only about a quarter of all venture firms have a woman at the decision-making level. This makes my 5-6% being partners sound pretty accurate.

That simply is UNACCEPTABLE. When I looked at that VP of Sales candidate I saw a glimpse of the future potential of my own daughter. I saw a woman who is capable of pretty much everything she set out to achieve who was incredibly intelligent, insightful and full of integrity and hard to find character. Any Venture Firm should kill to hire her (if they can beat me to her of course!- and, no, I will not tell you who she is if you email me!). She should have no barriers to becoming a partner at a top Venture Firm if she wanted to. However, those barriers are very much alive and well in the venture community.

Let’s Do It For Darya
I told her how I was raising my own 5 year old daughter, Darya, to be fearless and supremely confident in her abilities- without any of the insecurities that society might slowly try to induce in her. So far, I have succeeded all too well as Darya has essentially become the CEO of the household and now tells ME what to do. Her confidence has become invincible because everyday I try to instill in her that she has my absolute and utter faith in her mind and soul- that her voice will be heard by me at any time and anywhere and that her voice counts. I overexert my self to plant these seeds of confidence because I know that all too soon, when I am not there to be with her as she grows, this investment of faith will serve as her reservoirs of inner strength-these seeds will be her future roots keeping her steady in any storms. I can visualize her in high school and college and in her future career when the pangs of doubt might seize her and make her second guess her own judgement and I know with every ounce of my being that if I fail her now I will fail her then and she in turn will fail to raise her voice and be counted.

Too may elements of our culture and society demoralize and discount the utterly important and vital voice of women. At the end of the day raising a fearless daughter is not enough- all men and women must band to together and help make sure the doors of true meritocracy are not left closed to her and other women’s talents in the future.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Darya, Darya Pishevar, SGN, Shervin Pishevar, SocialGamingNetwork, venture capital, women in business, women in tech
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Tags: Getting to 50 50, girls in tech, Mom, San Francisco, Sharon Meers, women in business, women in tech, Work life balance
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Girls in Tech headed to Palo Alto on Saturday to attend the Stanford Women in Business “Off the Street – A Woman’s Guide to Non-     Traditional Careers” conference. This was such a great opportunity to introduce Girls in Tech to the next generation of women in technology and encourage women looking to pursue careers in technology, especially given the current economic times, to follow their heart. We went in thinking it would be a good experience for the young women of Stanford; it turned out to be a fantastic event for us as well.

Candace Nelson, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, keynoted the event and passed the audience the same, sage advice: do what you love. Cupcakes may not seem like high tech, but hey, a girl’s got to eat! (And, if you haven’t been fortunate enough to try one, do not pass go, go straight to a Sprinkles bakery near you. I recommend the Black and White. HEAVEN.)

During the address, Candace discussed her experience in founding and developing Sprinkles, which was the first-ever cupcake-only bakery. What we learned was that it’s not the industry that matters – her experience could have applied to a start-up anywhere. What was instrumental to her business was having a passion for what she was doing and putting a real stake in the ground for its success. At the end of the day, if you love what you do, success will come.

We are in many different industries and have different backgrounds, but, at Girls in Tech, we all love what we do. Many thanks to Stanford Women in Business for allowing us to share that passion with their members. Up next, Web 2.0!

Tags: "Lucia Giacomantonio", girls in tech, Megan Price, Mel Bolton, Stanford, technology, women in business, women in tech
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This conference is hosted by Stanford Women in Business (SWIB). SWIB seeks to provide the women of Stanford University an opportunity to build a foundation in business and join an encouraging community of aspiring and successful businesswomen. Stanford Women in Business intends to equip young women with the tools necessary to seize their talent and succeed in the world of business. Through events and programs such as business skill workshops, leadership conferences, career exposès, or mentorship pairings, SWIB is helping women find career direction, network with alumni and peers, and set and achieve ambitious career goals.

KEYNOTE

Speaker: Candace Nelson, Founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes
“Sprinkles Cupcakes: Building A Business From Scratch”

OPPORTUNITIES

The fair will include booths hosted by Stanford student business and women’s organizations as wells as women’s professional organizations from the Bay Area. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about membership, activities, and upcoming events related to their business interests. Representatives will be available to answer questions and share experiences.

Participants will include:
* 85 Broads
* AKPsi
* Stanford Consulting
* Stanford Finance
* Stanford Marketing
* Gumball Capital
* Stanford Venture Capital Club
* Cap & Gown
* Stanford Pre-Business Association
* Girls in Tech
* Stanford Women in Business
* Future Women Leaders
*Stanford Society for Entrepreneurs in Latin America
…and more!

WORKSHOPS AND PANELS

NETWORKING WORKSHOP

Does the term “networking” make you a little nervous – or even a lot? Join Dr. Susan Bernstein as she helps you discover helpful ways to make your networking easier. You’ll discover what to say and how to say it. And you’ll learn how to start up or break into a conversation. If you happen to be one of those “shy” types, find out how you can overcome your nerves and feel more at ease. If you’re wanting to make meaningful connections to help you land jobs and internships, this workshop will give you tips, perspectives, and even hands-on practice, so that networking becomes less nerve-wracking and more valuable.

CONSULTING PANEL

Learn about a wide variety of career opportunities within consulting from:

* Phyllis Moore, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Human Capital Consulting
* Sonia Nagala, Associate, Parthenon Group, Strategy Consulting
* Minli Virdone, Associate, McKinsey & Co, Management Consulting

Have your own questions about functions within consulting answered by the panelists.

NON-TRADITIONAL BUSINESS CAREER PANEL

A panel featuring leading female business professionals including:

* Kathy Chou, VP World Wide Communication Sales, HP
* Jessica Gilmartin and Patama Roj, Founders, Fraiche Yogurt
* Michaela Prescott, Google
* Sophia Tu, Gumball Capital
* Juliet Rothenberg (Moderator), Mayfield Fellow, Stanford University, Class of 2009

Learn how to approach business fields outside of banking and consulting and hear the success stories of these businesswomen. Have your own questions answered by the panelists.

Tags: conference, Events, Stanford, women in business
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